You Know, Come to Think of It, Double LPs are Really Annoying

The post entitled “Pet Peeves With the Vinyl Resurgence” running over at CNET’s “Digital Noise” blog isn’t nearly as insufferable as you are afraid it might be. Writer Matt Rosoff does make some points that are a bit on the whiny side: unclear marking of side A and side B is not something I can get too hot and bothered about, and neither are the failure to distinguish between 33 and 45rpm or the implementation of a multi-part authentication process for the free MP3s some record labels include with the purchase of an LP. But dude makes one point I could not possibly agree with more:

Albums with as few as 10 songs are now routinely split into double LPs, sometimes with less than 10 minutes of music per side (I’m looking at you, Sup Pop.) It’s one thing for early ’60s LPs and punk records to run short—they usually only had 25 minutes of music total. But taking a long album and purposely splitting it up so I have to stand up and walk to the turntable every two or three songs is strange. This isn’t a physical limitation: side one of Neil Young’s 1990 record “Ragged Glory” runs more than 30 minutes.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many records I own that I never, ever listen to for this very reason. I’ve pretty much stopped buying them altogether now, partially because of the inconvenience of it all, but also because, jesus, those fucking things are expensive. $27 for The Suburbs on vinyl? Ouch.